Bike Thefts V DVLA giving out car owner details willy nilly

Just wondering through my mind whilst out on RB . If I was a scumbag and I saw 2 high end bikes on / in a car and wanted to relieve the owner of them m Could I contact the DVLA claiming a car park incident and the need to contact the owner?

If the DVLA hand out this information , even for a small fee, the potential rewards are easy too see.

Do the DVLA then inform the registered keeper of the inquirery *sp* to try to legitimise the handing over of the information , or is it just forwarded to the thiefs ?

If it is then OK, If it isnt , why isnt it and do the police and insurance companies ever cross check car owner details against crime. I think i know the answer to that .

One advantage of a leased company car is that the reg keeper will be a finance co or eg AudiUK

Funny you should mention that actually. I've just had 2 bikes stolen from my garage and someone from our bike club suggested exactly the same. The theft was definatly targeted considering the circumstances.

Would be interesting to know if such an activity you mention can be done.

You're over thinking it IMO
Most thefts will be opportunistic they'll simply take what they find or what they've seen beforehand

Not in my case. Bikes not been out of garage for nearly a month. Only thing taken was 1 x bike in bike bag. And 1 x built up bike ready to ride. If it was opportunistic then there would be tons of climbing equipment, tools, tents etc available for taking which would be much easier.

I'm sure they did but I'll wager the vast majority are opportunistic and you should put effort into protecting against that rather than an elaborate plot

Most may be opportunistic, nicking bikes outside shops etc. But the is what amounts to an industry that is nicking high-end bikes, these are the people who get repeat thefts, followed home, tracked etc. it is a real problem IMO.

Of course it'll not be someone spotting the bike on the roof of your car in your local town then following you home. There's also GPS apps tweeting away in the area providing a nice handy map to the persons house.

n England, Wales and Scotland, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) can give the name and address of the person registered as the keeper of the vehicle to anyone who has a good reason for needing it, provided that the circumstances relate to a vehicle or its use on the road. If you want this information, you should use form V888 available at (New window) http://www.direct.gov.uk. A fee of £2.50 is payable.You must give the registration number, make and model of the car and the date of the accident. You can also get the form from the DVLA.

Most thefts will be opportunistic they'll simply take what they find or what they've seen beforehand

I'm not sure it's that far fetched at all.

Obviously you have to supply your own details so its going to be easy to find out if someone has done it.

Its possible, but not that likely.

You do have to give your own details, but as the victim you'd struggle to prove that they were to blame wouldn't you? They just have to claim some nonsensical reason for wanting your details and you have to prove them guilty, not prove there's a smoking gun.

They don't automatically tell the registered keeper, but the registered keeper has the right to ask them for a copy of the form from any request. Given that the information is supplied by post, you can assume that the address is in some way linked to the person asking for the info. Giving information out to "anyone who requests it with due cause" is slightly different from how they handle the car park companies as I understand it. Therefore the "thief" needs to provide a credible story to go with it. Obviously if that turns out to be made up then there is the start of a case, and somewhere for the police to start looking - and probably a separate offence (which the form suggests carries a fine of upto £5000).

If I thought this was likely I'd be asking DVLA for any forms submitted for my car. Then if the reasons were dodgy I would pass them on to the police with the suggestion. Obviously if there are a cluster of thefts and they involve DVLA requests there is a pattern, and if the idiot thief had them all sent to the same address their is the start of a circumstantial case.

In reality I think it is too drawn out a process for the average thief.

(1) They need to be able to spot high value bikes when on the move.
(2) Trail centres (ie. locations with a high density of such bikes) attract people from a wide radius. A thief "working Glentress" might get hits from vehicles from glasgow, to dundee, and newcastle. That is a big patch for a petty crim to cover.
(3) Company vehicles will not usually be registered to the house.
(4) The best bikes might not be the driver of the car (eg. if I drive with my mate's £3500 carbon dream machine on the roof, alongside my bike - the thief will be dissapointed to break into mine, and probably put his back out lifting the heavy bugger of a bike).
(5) You get no indication of likely security, e.g. shed, garage, attached to house or separate, overlooked or rural, bikes inside the house, alarm etc.

All together the odds of getting an "easy" steal, of a high value bike by matching number plates is not that good. To be making a living from nicking bikes you would need to put in a lot of V888 forms which would likely attract some DVLA attention, and certainly make it harder to cover your tracks.

I agree with Poly I think. It's certainly possible, and I've no doubt it has happened/does happen, but it's a lot of work to go to to steal a bike. Also worth remembering a nicked bike will, usually, sell for much less than it's actually worth, meaning you'd have to put in a lot of work and get very lucky to get any kind of decent return.